Finland names new leader in bid to restore political harmony

A FORMER journalist and EU specialist was named as Finland’s new prime minister yesterday, replacing the first woman to hold to post after only two months when she was toppled by a leaked document scandal.

Parliament voted 109-67 for the Centre Party's Matti Vanhanen in a widely expected move, as Finland tried to restore political harmony after a scandal that embarrassed a nation that prizes itself on its squeaky-clean politics.

"It has been an exceptional situation and a dramatic day," a calm and soft-spoken Mr Vanhanen, defence minister in the last short-lived administration, told reporters after the vote.